The Bainbridge Community Foundation achieved an all-time record high of $243,661 in funding to benefit more than 50 local nonprofits this year through the annual Community Grants Cycle.

This year marks the most successful grants giveaway in the foundation’s 15-year history.

The total dollars awarded represents a 75 percent increase in the funding managed even just three years ago. Sixty-four percent of this year’s grant proposals were fully funded and 13 new applicants received grant awards. Officials attributed the program’s growth and success in large part to the support of more than 40 volunteer Evaluation Team members and a record number of funding partners who joined with the foundation to fulfill grant requests.

Since its inception in 2005, community grants totaling more than $1.5 million have been made to support programs and organizations that touch all aspects of life on Bainbridge Island.

A complete listing of the grants awarded this year is available at www.bainbridgecf.org.

The mission of the Bainbridge Community Foundation is to encourage, inspire and provide meaningful ways for people to enhance and sustain our community through philanthropy. Over the past 15 years, BCF has grown to nearly $10 million in assets and has contributed more than $8.5 million to important causes that matter to islanders.

The foundation will host a nonprofit celebration, together with One Call For All and the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island, at the Bainbridge Performing Arts facility from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, July 14.

Staff, volunteers and board members of local nonprofits are invited to attend this free event.

The highest funded 2016 application overall, which received additional funding beyond the original request, fell within the Public and Societal Benefit sector: an award of $15,100 to the Friends of Fort Ward Community Hall project, which will fund the restoration of the historic bakery building so that it can be used as a community and education center and event venue.

The building will be managed for public use by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District. It will be the first public hall located on the south end of Bainbridge Island.

The Bainbridge Public Library received an award of $10,000 for the construction of new booths equipped with sound canceling technology. These amenities will offer patrons much needed quiet spaces to work, study and meet in small groups.

An award of $5,000 to Kids in Concert will fund a low cost musical theatre camp where students learn writing, directing and choreography.

In the area of Arts, Culture & Humanities, the Foundation granted more than $26,000 to support local museums, theaters and arts organizations. Bainbridge Arts & Crafts was awarded a grant of $4,800 for their “Art After 60” program, which brightens the lives of seniors in assisted living facilities by engaging them in fun and creative projects.

Bainbridge Performing Arts also received full funding for their “Open Door Program,” which provides free and reduced-cost tickets to performances and Theatre School classes to those in need.

BCF’s annual Trustees’ Award, a special award funded by staff, trustees and volunteers, recognizes great collaboration between local nonprofits. The recipient of the 2016 BCF Trustees’ Award was the Healthy Youth Alliance, an ongoing partnership between Bainbridge Youth Services, Raising Resilience, Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island, the Bainbridge Island School District and the Boys & Girls Club. Local teens will continue to benefit from the alliance’s culture-changing efforts to address and positively impact the alarming issues of increasing depression, anxiety and substance abuse amongst island teens. The funding received will allow the alliance to engage in planning in order to increase their collective impact over the long term.

The foundation also saw an increase in applications aimed at building greater multi-generational engagement, many created in response to the Healthy Youth Alliance’s efforts to involve the nonprofit community.

One new applicant, Space Craft, received full funding in support of their work to support emerging artists and dynamic programming that appeals to all ages. Their events offer safe forms of entertainment for local youth, as well as opportunities to contribute as volunteers and interns.

Another applicant, Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, was awarded $5,000 to create a “Youth Engagement Plan” for their intergenerational invention and craft center. The plan will engage youth in BARN operations and enriching activities and connect them with seniors.

Overall, the largest amount of grant dollars were awarded to the Health, Housing and Human Services sector, which received nearly $95,000.

Several awards in this sector were aimed at homelessness prevention and supportive services. North Kitsap Fishline was awarded $10,000 for their Homeless Support Services program, serving the homeless as well as those at-risk of being homeless who need critical help with emergency housing, affordable housing and eviction prevention.

An award to West Sound Youth for Christ will fund their “Independent Living Services” program, which teaches education, employment and life skills to an extremely vulnerable population, youth transitioning out of foster care.